The First Hour - xbox 360http://firsthour.net/taxonomy/term/21/0
enDeus Ex: Human Revolutionhttp://firsthour.net/full-review/deus-ex-human-revolution-greg-noe
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<p>My writing pace has slowed to a halt the last month. I might have
burned myself out a bit at the end of 2012, and the new year has allowed
me to erase any kind of guidelines or deadlines I was imposing on
myself. With Nate and the other writers’ help, I always tried to publish
three times a week, but I’ll be honest and say it’s just not in me like
it used to be. Maybe it’s temporary, it probably is, but for now, I
don’t mind taking it a bit easier. This is my hobby after all.</p>
<p>And
most of that time not spent writing has gone into video games! Yeah,
those! (Also reading, a lot of reading.) Maybe I’ll declare 2013 the
year of the catch up, even though 80% of the games I beat last year
weren’t released last year as it is. But my backlog is huge and the only
game I’m really interested in on the near horizon is <strong>Bioshock Infinite</strong>,
so now’s as good as time as any.</p>
<p>As for <strong>Deus Ex: Human
Revolution</strong>? It was a good game, problematic at times, but an experience
worth putting at least a few hours into, and at about 24 hours long,
probably worth finishing. I’m not sure how much I have to say about it
that hasn’t <a href="/full-review/deus-ex-human-revolution">already been said by our own Paul Abbamondi</a>, let alone
everyone else, so I’ll keep this short and to the point... starting now.</p>
<p>First of all, you may have heard that the boss battles of Human Revolution were outsourced to a different development team and don’t really mesh with the rest of the game. This is an understatement: they’re terrible. This is a stealth-focused game that allows for gunplay if you want, but I wanted to be sneaky. I didn’t kill any bad guys, heck, I didn’t even carry any real guns, so when you encounter a boss that you simply can’t stun like everyone else, well, you’re going to have a problem.</p>
<p>Luckily, I had some advice going in that I’ll share with you: invest in the Typhoon ability. You can simply run up to the bosses and spam it, pretty much instantly killing them. This worked fine until the third boss, which I fought without any of my powers, including Typhoon, because of a stupid trick the game pulled on me a few hours earlier. Anyway, I ended up having to turn the difficulty down to beat him because I was just so underprepared.</p>
<p>The game is also kind of full of itself. It likes to interrupt the action quite a bit to show off how fancy its animation artists were. Takedown someone from behind? Go into third person mode and play a canned animation you’ll see 50 more times. Jump off a high ledge? Play an obnoxious slow-landing animation. The most ridiculous part of it is you’re sneaking around trying to be really silent, and then your character absolutely decks a guard or loudly breaks his arm in the takedown cutscene. Okay.</p>
<p>Sneaking around in Deus Ex: Human Revolution is pretty enjoyable, though. There’s a well integrated cover maneuver that is more useful for hiding in this game, and the game always gives you the option of going around obstacles slowly if you’re not interested in fighting it out. Man-sized air ducts are hilariously in abundance, and you’ll often have to hack computers to disable alarms, cameras, or turrets. I felt like a real spy at times, especially with some of the additional human augmentations at my disposal.</p>
<p>I was surprised with the openness of the two hub worlds featured in Human Revolution. There’s a scattering of side missions available that open up the story a bit more, but are completely skippable (and easily missable) if you’re not interested. The extra large areas, while fun to explore, can be a pain when trying to completely cross the maps, but I really like the effort put into the details.</p>
<h3>Overall: 7</h3>
<p>An entertaining adventure with some disappointing, tedious aspects. Deus Ex: Human Revolution could have been great, though I’m glad I finally got around to playing it, but this isn’t anything extraordinarily special.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/screenshots/deus-ex-human-revolution/deus-ex-human-revolution-sneaky-science.jpg" alt="Deus ex Human Revolution Sneaky Science" title="Deus ex Human Revolution Sneaky Science" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></p><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/deus-ex-human-revolution-greg-noe#commentsdeus ex human revolutiondeus exfpsstealthosxps3windowsxbox 3607Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:00:00 +0000Greg Noe755 at http://firsthour.netThe Walking Dead: No Time Lefthttp://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-no-time-left
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<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">The Walking Dead: No Time Left</th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="The Walking Dead: No Time Left Cover" title="The Walking Dead: No Time Left Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Windows, OSX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Deadly finale</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Score</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">9&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="/sites/default/files/images/clocks/infobox-score-9.png" alt="Clock score of 9" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="centerinfobox" colspan="2"><a class="amazonlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007WWW2C8?tag=thfiho0a-20" target="_blank">Buy from Amazon</a></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The finale to the first episodic season of <strong>The Walking Dead</strong> has
arrived, and after the shocking conclusion to the fourth episode, it was
apparent just how <strong>No Time Left</strong> would end. Of course, getting there is
never straightforward in The Walking Dead universe.</p>
<p>This final
review will be rather spoilerific after the cut, so there’s your first
warning. It would be massively difficult to talk about the season as a
whole without talking about the characters and their relationships, the
real core to The Walking Dead. It’s funny: comparing it to my earlier
episodic gaming experience, <a href="/full-review/tales-of-monkey-island-rise-of-the-pirate-god"><strong>Tales of Monkey Island</strong></a>, and while I’m going
to end up awarding them identical scores, it’s for completely different
reasons and I feel totally different about each experience. My thoughts
are also a lot more complicated when it comes to The Walking Dead.</p>
<p>So with that, let’s talk Lee, Clementine, and the end of the world.</p>
<h3>Episode Reviews</h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-a-new-day">A New Day</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-starved-for-help">Starved for Help</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-long-road-ahead">Long Road Ahead</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-around-every-corner">Around Every Corner</a></li>
<li><strong>No Time Left</strong></li>
</ol>
<h2>Spoilers</h2>
<p>I’ll get my one and only major complaint out of the way first, but it also mostly has to do with the opening of the episode anyway. For the first half of No Time Left, the game feels like it’s lacking much of the momentum you would expect from the final episode. Clementine has been kidnapped, the city is being overrun by zombies, Lee has been bit, and the group has been splintered apart, but the remaining gang just does a whole lot of yapping instead of doing.</p>
<p>There’s a brief bit of excitement when they help cut Lee’s arm off (what an intense scene, and Lee does it himself if he didn’t bring any friends!), then more downtime. Followed by a return to the house with a short firefight, then more sitting around before the final trek begins. I know that The Walking Dead has never been about constant excitement, or even 50% excitement, but I kept waiting for No Time Left to actually earn its name.</p>
<p>But the journey to the Marsh House is a good one, slowly first across the rooftops, with a whole lot of narrow footbridges along the way, and then the final berserker sprint through the final street, instantly becoming one of the most epic gaming moments in all of 2012. Friends are shed along the way, most notable the loss of Kenny, Lee's star-crossed bromance friend. I had personally dropped Ben from the belltower last episode, so in No Time Left, Kenny saved Christa, who he knew was pregnant with Omid’s child.</p>
<p>This was a tough loss for me as it was unexpected but understandable. I figured Kenny and Lee would be arguing to the bitter end, but it almost felt a bit unceremonious. I watched his alternate death on Youtube (where he attempts to save Ben) and felt similarly. I suppose there aren’t a lot of dragged out deaths in the zombie apocalypse.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-no-time-left-bar-the-doors.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-no-time-left-bar-the-doors-thumb.jpg" alt="the Walking Dead no Time Left bar the Doors" title="the Walking Dead no Time Left bar the Doors" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></a></div>
<p>I really liked the final few conversations Lee had with Christa and Omid, they were not only the only people left in the entire world Lee knew who were alive, but they were a young, stable couple who could be great parents to Clementine. Their excitement at the plan only made that post-credits scene that much more difficult. “Clementine, why didn’t you go to the train? Is that Omid and Christa up on the ridge? God, knowing this game, it’s probably those cannibal farm brothers I left alive in <strong>Starved for Help</strong>.”</p>
<p>But Lee is alone for the final confrontation against The Stranger, and while this face-off should feel totally undeserving of any kind of “final boss” quality, his explanation of what has brought a father to kidnapping a young girl is enough to paint him as a man who may actually have a point. A point I wholeheartedly disagree with - Clementine is mine, even if I only have hours to live - but a point, nonetheless. I think it’s actually unwarranted to make him totally insane by having him carry around his wife’s zombified head in a bowling bag, to me it undercuts the seriousness behind the idea that maybe Lee hasn’t been the best guardian for Clementine the last few months.</p>
<p>The QTE struggle with The Stranger was, of course, about as lame as you would expect, but apparently I wasn’t quick enough with one of the taps because Clementine ended up shooting his brains out instead of Lee finishing him off with a choke. I personally like the version I got better due to it wrapping up her training from <strong>Long Road Ahead</strong>.</p>
<p>Lee then slathers zombie guts all over Clementine in one final gross-out scene before we head back into the streets, but the shocks are still coming. I literally gasped when Clementine saw her parents, it was the perfect, devastating coda to what was obvious all along, but it still surprised me when she stopped walking. Lee collapses, and somehow Clementine manages to drag him out of the street and into what would become his final resting place.</p>
<p>There aren’t a lot of dragged out deaths in the zombie apocalypse, but Lee gets one in what is probably the most brutal, heartwrenching finale to a game I’ve ever seen since <a href="/first-hour-review/metal-gear-solid-3"><strong>Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater</strong></a>. We know he’s going to die, but Lee and Clementine have become father and daughter during the zompocalypse, and that makes asking Clementine to shoot Lee in the head so hard, yet so easy. I couldn’t let her see me become a zombie, even if this was just a game.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-no-time-left-lee-the-stranger.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-no-time-left-lee-the-stranger-thumb.jpg" alt="the Walking Dead no Time Left lee the Stranger" title="the Walking Dead no Time Left lee the Stranger" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></a></div>
<h3>Episode Score: 9</h3>
<p>Slightly off pace in the first half, but a truly stellar ending to the first season of The Walking Dead. While I came to love Lee, Christa, Kenny, and Omid, their deaths and separation felt... right. Nothing is fair or kind in this kind of future, but come on, at least let Clementine find happiness!</p>
<h3>Season Overall: 8</h3>
<p>Now that it’s over, I trust in the future I’ll have very similar feelings towards The Walking Dead as I did towards <a href="/full-review/heavy-rain"><strong>Heavy Rain</strong></a>. I love the emphasis towards the story and characters, and while I have no problem playing an interactive drama, I personally feel that with our current technology the genre has already peaked. The rough edges between “interactive” and “drama” are still mostly there, particularly in The Walking Dead’s awkward quick time events. Am I feeling stronger dramatic emotions by super tapping on the A button? Only in annoyance.</p>
<p>I do see a strong future for the genre though, and I think whatever Telltale has planned down the line for The Walking Dead may light that path. But there are bound to be growing pains, and while this game is great and wonderful in its own ways, it has its issues. But no matter what, I’ll be here for season two.</p>
<p>Keep that hair short.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-no-time-left-bar-lee-decapitate.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-no-time-left-bar-lee-decapitate-thumb.jpg" alt="the Walking Dead no Time Left bar lee Decapitate" title="the Walking Dead no Time Left bar lee Decapitate" class="image" height="451" width="800" /></a></div><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-no-time-left#commentsthe walking deadthe walking deadinteractive dramapoint and clickiososxps3windowsxbox 3609Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000Greg Noe744 at http://firsthour.netThe Walking Dead: Around Every Cornerhttp://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-around-every-corner
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<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">The Walking Dead: Around Every Corner<br /></th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="The Walking Dead Cover" title="The Walking Dead Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Windows, OSX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Point and... make it stop!</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Score</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">9&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="/sites/default/files/images/clocks/infobox-score-9.png" alt="Clock score of 9" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="centerinfobox" colspan="2"><a class="amazonlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007WWW2C8?tag=thfiho0a-20" target="_blank">Buy from Amazon</a></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The penultimate episode of the first season of <a href="/series/the-walking-dead"><strong>The Walking Dead</strong></a>
brings our group of survivors to the edge with seemingly no hope for a
happy ending. While I’ve certainly enjoyed the previous three episodes
quite a bit, I feel like everything has finally clicked for me in <strong>Around
Every Corner</strong>. There’s a great sense of dread, urgency, and horror as
you progress, and it successfully caps off the previous three hours with
a heart-stopping finale.</p>
<p>Telltale Games wouldn’t have been my
first choice for a Walking Dead game, as a popular graphic novel and the
most successful show on cable television, the intellectual property
owners should have had their pick of the litter when shopping their
game. Could <a href="/series/call-of-duty"><strong>Call of Duty: Black Ops II</strong></a> have sold even more with a fully
licensed Walking Dead zombie mode? Should the /games/dead-rising developers
been tapped? Capcom for their <a href="/games/dead-rising"><strong>Dead Rising</strong></a> experience? Valve with <a href="/full-review/left-4-dead"><strong>Left 4
Dead</strong></a>? EA for their gobs of money?</p>
<p>But Telltale’s interactive drama
experiment has been a huge success, at least critically. There are
bound to be more Walking Dead games in the future, but this will
certainly set the bar high. Here’s my review of episode four: Around
Every Corner.</p>
<h3>Episode Reviews</h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-a-new-day">A New Day</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-starved-for-help">Starved for Help</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-long-road-ahead">Long Road Ahead</a></li>
<li><strong>Around Every Corner</strong></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-no-time-left">No Time Left</a></li>
</ol>
<p>This episode may be remembered as the one with the most disturbing imagery in the season, from the zombie in the attic to your friend’s body in the sewer, along with the bell ringer at the school and the final scene that leaves me dreading episode five. It takes a creative mind to even think of these situations, a bold producer to greenlight them, and a great art team to execute the vision on screen. At times, The Walking Dead is just a mediocre, linear point and click adventure with too many quick time events, but you forget all that the moment you see a gaunt, five year old zombie boy trying to stand up unsuccessfully. Disturbing stuff.</p>
<p>Since the cast of survivors was almost halved in the last episode, we meet up with who are seemingly the last people alive in Savannah, Georgia. Their introductions are well done and it’s made clear how each set of survivors have lasted this long since the initial outbreak. I really liked meeting the group in the fallout shelter until I failed a 50/50 choice and was shot, having to restart the scene. I’m still unsure whether this design decision was a good one, as it was an unexpected action during a conversation that brought me to my temporary demise.</p>
<p>I haven’t talked about the controls much beyond mentioning the quick time events, but I’d like to point out that it took me until episode four to understand what one of the QTE on screen indicators meant. There’s one where these two arrows merge into the middle of the screen and I couldn’t tell if you were supposed to make them meet or not. I figure I’m a pretty quick button tapper with 20+ years of practice, but it was never clear to me whether I was actually helping or not, and having to press another button when they finally did meet didn’t help much either. Did I have to press the button because I failed the tapping sequence or because I had succeeded. Well, I can tell you now with 100% confidence that you want the arrows to merge and press that second button!</p>
<h3>Overall: 9</h3>
<p>I’m keeping these as vague as possible to avoid spoilers, but I’ll probably go full out in my final episode review after a proper warning. These episodes are so drama heavy that going into any detail could be a detriment to the spoiler-averse gamer. But if you’re still reading this and haven’t played the game, I would highly recommend it, even without having played <strong>No Time Left</strong>.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-around-every-corner-molly-ice-pick.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-around-every-corner-molly-ice-pick.jpg" alt="the Walking Dead Around Every Corner Molly ice Pick" title="the Walking Dead Around Every Corner Molly ice Pick" class="image" height="500" width="800" /></a></div><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-around-every-corner#commentsthe walking deadthe walking deadinteractive dramapoint and clickiososxps3windowsxbox 3609Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:00:00 +0000Greg Noe742 at http://firsthour.netThe Walking Dead: Long Road Aheadhttp://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-long-road-ahead
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<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">The Walking Dead: Long Road Ahead</th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="The Walking Dead: Long Road Ahead Cover" title="The Walking Dead: Long Road Ahead Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Windows, OSX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">All aboard the death choo choo</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Score</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">8&nbsp; <img src="/sites/default/files/images/clocks/infobox-score-7.png" alt="Clock score of 7" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="centerinfobox" colspan="2"><a class="amazonlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007WWW2C8?tag=thfiho0a-20" target="_blank">Buy from Amazon</a></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>If there’s something that Telltale Games teaches its <strong>Walking Dead</strong>
players in <strong>Long Road Ahead</strong>, it is that everyone is expendable. While I
don’t know if everyone’s experience was like mine, I lost four major
characters over the course of the episode. Zombies are dangerous in the
world of The Walking Dead, but humans are a lot worse. To quote one of
the characters, “I don’t believe in strength in numbers.”</p>
<p>I
haven’t been quite as blown away by the episodes so far as the rest of
the internet are, but I’ve certainly enjoyed them so far. The areas are
generally small and there is little exploration or puzzle solving
required. I’m reminded again of my original comparison of the game to<a href="/full-review/heavy-rain"> <strong>
Heavy Rain</strong></a>, but there was a greater sense of dread in Quantic Dream’s
psychological epic than in this zombie-laden drama.</p>
<p>Long Road
Ahead was released in late August and it was during this time that I was
first exposed to the game through social channels, which is certainly
not a surprise considering some of the hellish scenarios the episode
puts its players through. While I feel episode three was an improvement
over <strong>Starved for Help</strong>, I’m still looking for a bit more from the game
than frantic quick time events.</p>
<h3>Episode Reviews</h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-a-new-day">A New Day</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-starved-for-help">Starved for Help</a></li>
<li><strong>Long Road Ahead</strong></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-around-every-corner">Around Every Corner</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-no-time-left">No Time Left</a></li>
</ol>
<p>The third episode opens up about a week after the events of Starved for Help, with the group experiencing a temporary respite from bandits attacking their motel camp. Lee and Kenny make a trip back to Lee’s parents’ pharmacy for supplies where they express their frustration at each other. Kenny keeps threatening to leave but I’m pretty sure these guys are going to be stuck together until the end, for better or worse.</p>
<p>Thankfully, the game moves away from the motel camp relatively soon after Lee returns (but not before a really awkward shooting scene that made me question temporarily why I was using an Xbox 360 controller to play the game with) and the survivors are on the road. Things start to break down from here, however, as the group implodes from within with tensions so high. Telltale writes these argument scenes very well leaving you disoriented with little time to make big decisions.</p>
<p>Eventually, what’s left of the group is stranded at a partially derailed locomotive. After the episode’s “big puzzle”, basically the equivalent of a small challenge in <a href="/full-review/tales-of-monkey-island-launch-of-the-screaming-narwhal"><strong>Tales of Monkey Island</strong></a>, the survivors head off to Savannah in the train with a couple new friends to replace the old.</p>
<p>The Walking Dead would be a pretty run-of-the-mill adventure game if it weren’t for the relationship between Lee and Clementine. It’s strengthened in Long Road Ahead when Lee realizes that it’s going to take more than reassuring words to protect the little girl, and decides to buckle down and teach her to protect herself. In a scene that couldn’t be done in any other type of game, Lee helps Clementine shoot a gun for the first time and verbally directs her aim to build her skill and confidence. It was a touching scene juxtaposed by the idea that in this world, even kids need to know how to protect themselves with firearms.</p>
<p>Also lots of credit goes to the game's animators. The facial expressions are excellent and exaggerated just enough with The Walking Dead's comic book graphical style. Favorite reaction: Lee's shocked look when someone notes that the homeless man they just met who lives on a train is finally "someone normal".</p>
<h3>Overall: 8</h3>
<p>I like the track the game is on and am not concerned about the quality of the last two episodes at all. Telltale Games has shown that they will pull no punches when telling their story, and if that means gamers have to struggle through everyone else dying, so be it.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-long-road-ahead-clementine-gun-train.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-long-road-ahead-clementine-gun-train-thumb.jpg" alt="the Walking Dead Long Road Ahead Clementine gun Train" title="the Walking Dead Long Road Ahead Clementine gun Train" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></a></div><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-long-road-ahead#commentsthe walking deadthe walking deadinteractive dramapoint and clickiososxps3windowsxbox 3608Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000Greg Noe741 at http://firsthour.netThe Walking Dead: Starved for Helphttp://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-starved-for-help
<!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--break-->
<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">The Walking Dead: Starved for Help</th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="The Walking Dead: Starved for Help Cover" title="The Walking Dead: Starved for Help Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Windows, OSX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">The talking dead</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Score</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">7&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="/sites/default/files/images/clocks/infobox-score-7.png" alt="Clock score of 7" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="centerinfobox" colspan="2"><a class="amazonlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007WWW2C8?tag=thfiho0a-20" target="_blank">Buy from Amazon</a></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>I’m not any kind of expert on zombie apocalypse fiction, but from my
point of view, there’s two crucial points in the story that every good
zombie story needs, and needs to do well. The first is the tension
build-up in Act 1. Everyone watching, reading, or playing some sort of
zombie media knows there will be zombies. The ones who don’t know are
the characters, the heroes whose lives are about to be torn apart by the
undead. The more tension the author can build, the more satisfying and
terrifying the reveal will be when hell is unleashed.</p>
<p>The other
crucial part of zombie fiction doesn’t involve the zombies at all, but
human conflict. The zombie mythos rule of thumb says that the dead are
never the true enemy in zombie fiction and that interesting drama lies
in the living. This is true, but drama isn’t necessarily easy or obvious
to write, so it’s not a given it’s executed well.</p>
<p><strong>The Walking
Dead</strong> already featured their tension build-up and zombie reveal in<a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-a-new-day"> <strong>
Episode 1: A New Day</strong></a>, but it still surprised me that <strong>Episode 2: Starved
for Help</strong> almost immediately dropped running from zombies in favor of
arguing with fellow survivors, but Telltale Games is apparently
confident in their story, so let’s take a look.</p>
<h3>Episode Reviews</h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-a-new-day">A New Day</a></li>
<li><strong>Starved for Help</strong></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-long-road-ahead">Long Road Ahead</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-around-every-corner">Around Every Corner</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-no-time-left">No Time Left</a></li>
</ol>
<p>Starved for Help takes place three months after A New Day, putting our band of survivors straight into “need food” mode as they work to defend the motel visited in the first episode. From the meager helpings available, it appears that most food has already been scavenged from around the nearby area, and with hard working adults and growing kids needing meals, it’s a dismal camp.</p>
<p>After a fast-paced, stomach-churning opening set in the woods, main character Lee Everett is put into temporary charge of distributing food to the 10 survivors. He’s given an apple, two packages of crackers and cheese, and a strip of beef jerky. Unsurprisingly, the game gives you full control over who to keep fed and who to ignore, which has nothing to do with restoring invisible hit points and everything to do with generating drama and messing up future conversation trees.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-dinner-time-mark-meat.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-dinner-time-mark-meat-thumb.jpg" alt="the Walking Dead Dinner Time Mark Meat" title="the Walking Dead Dinner Time Mark Meat" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></a></div>
<p>After one more encounter with a zombie, I should note: the final zombie you have to directly deal with over the next two hours, you’re invited to a farm by two good ol’ boys looking for some gasoline. They seem friendly and a trade for their farm food for anything seems like a good deal at this point, so the scene shifts there. After that it’s a slow boil to an exciting finish.</p>
<p>A very slow boil. Over the next hour you’ll repair a swing, repair fences, and talk a lot. These kind of moments can be touching and provide backdrops for exposition, but the action is too dispersed, in my opinion. Most of the drama keeps hitting the same notes, too: “you don’t care about my kid”, “you’re an asshole”, “you really don’t care about my kid!” It was satisfying to see one of those plot threads <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOkUjF_6pRI">come to a squishy end</a>.</p>
<p>But Telltale still produces some entertaining drama when the stakes are raised and your heartbeat is flying along with Lee’s, and it’s clear now that The Walking Dead isn’t about killing zombies or even fighting off humans, but giving you limited time to make some very tough decisions. The kind of decisions that you may need to rationalize to yourself later that it really was the right way to go, simply because option two was just as horrifying.</p>
<p>But doing the right thing is muddied by the presence of Clementine, who sees Lee as her surrogate father. The choices you make will not only be judged by others, but by a 10 year old girl who desperately needs an anchor in the whirlpool of post-apocalyptic life. Sometimes, the tough choices are made easier, you want to be a role model, after all; but at other times knowing Clementine is there (or even worse, not knowing she’s there until after the axe has been swung) can make choosing between A and B maddening.</p>
<h3>Overall: 7</h3>
<p>I didn’t enjoy Starved for Help as much as A New Day, but it is a solid continuation of the The Walking Dead and leaves me excited for <strong>Episode 3: Long Road Ahead</strong>. (trains!)</p><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-starved-for-help#commentsthe walking deadthe walking deadinteractive dramapoint and clickiososxps3windowsxbox 3607Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000Greg Noe733 at http://firsthour.netRetro City Rampagehttp://firsthour.net/full-review/retro-city-rampage
<!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--break-->
<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">Retro City Rampage</th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="Retro City Rampage Cover" title="Retro City Rampage Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Steam, PlayStation Network (PS3 and Vita), Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">GTA in 30MB</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Score</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">7&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="/sites/default/files/images/clocks/infobox-score-7.png" alt="Clock score of 7" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>When I rented the <a title="Harvey Birdman wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Birdman:_Attorney_at_Law_%28video_game%29" target="_blank"><em>Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law</em></a> video game a few years ago, I learned that some comedy has a minimum speed limit. I loved the rapid surrealist gags in the Adult Swim cartoon, but fifteen minutes was all I could take of the same humor decelerated to account for player input. What worked at twenty jokes per minute just didn’t translate to a relaxed visual novel speed.</p>
<p><em>Retro City Rampage</em> has taught me that the funny/fast correlation works both ways. What was shaping up to be a <a title="RCR first hour" href="/first-hour-review/retro-city-rampage" target="_blank">parade of lazy puns and toothless parodies</a> is acceptable entertainment when marched at a sprinter’s pace. It’s all in the delivery.</p>
<p>And <em>Rampage</em> delivers ‘80s nostalgia in spades. From head to toe, the game is decked out in pop culture knockoffs. You’ll accept missions from Principal Belding, find Game Genie codes, and change your appearance in a Michael Jackson facelift shop...with slight alterations that abide by intellectual property laws, of course.</p>
<p>Parody projects often result in <a title="Disaster Movie rotten tomatoes" href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/disaster_movie/" target="_blank">utter disaster</a>, and <em>Rampage</em> has its share of flatliners. It stumbles the most when going blue: sophomoric humor is tricky to pull off, and Brian Provinciano is no Judd Apatow. But even the worst offenders, like spoofing the Ghostbusters into an adult theater cleaning crew, tend to exude a warm reverence to monuments of the ‘80s and gaming icons of all eras.</p>
<p>The most palatable allusions imbue the multitude of storefronts, vehicles, and powerups that populate Theftropolis. Cruising through <em>Rampage</em>’s top-down city is a bit like touring Disney Land, with every square inch of real estate committed to the retro theme. Exploration is the open-world genre’s bread and butter; Theftropolis’ distinct boroughs and the scavenger hunts therein offer the game’s purest entertainment, though the modest sprawl means you can see it all in a day.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-skatebuy.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-skatebuy-thumb.jpg" alt="Retro City Rampage Skatebuy" title="Retro City Rampage Skatebuy" class="image" height="270" width="480" /></a></div>
<p>It’s more fun to sightsee at leisure, but <em>Rampage</em>’s story path also sends your career criminal avatar to almost every corner of the map. The 62 missions demand various misdeeds, from fistfights to shootouts to car chases. Few take longer than five minutes, and the itinerary hops among those core activities and minigame sidejobs enough to ensure the quest never gets stale. Unfortunately, the final stretch overshoots the reliable limits of the game mechanics, asking more of the player than is reasonable and resulting in unnecessary frustration.</p>
<p>Outside of the story missions, dozens of rampage challenges task the player with causing as much carnage as possible in a minute, with specific focuses on certain weapons, vehicles, and powerups. These and other minigames come equipped with online leaderboards and gold medal challenges to encourage practice and perfection. The intricacies of the scoring system aren’t well clarified, though bonus points are clearly awarded for simultaneous and consecutive kills. But the medal rankings, friend comparisons, and short durations frequently kept me coming back for “just one more.”</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-cutscene.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-cutscene-thumb.jpg" alt="Retro City Rampage Cutscene" title="Retro City Rampage Cutscene" class="image" height="270" width="480" /></a></div>
<p>If there’s one reason to stop playing, though, it’s that the core systems don’t offer much depth. Melee combat is the clear low point, a stodgy affair best ignored unless no other options are available. Guns can be fired with lock-on aiming and supplemented by a cover system, though those options are a bit crude. It’s more effective to play twin-stick shooter style, moving with the left stick and firing with the right, a setup that is entirely capable if not remarkable. Driving is intuitive enough, though the limited top-down view discourages faster rides, unless you can play without blinking.</p>
<p>Though ordinary, the action mechanics serve as foundation for plenty of ways to find fun. Touring Theftropolis is enjoyable whether on-foot, behind the wheel, or decked out in any of the five mobility-enhancing powerups. Mowing down pedestrians and evading the cops is a tradition well kept. A handful of arcade homages provide adequate distractions alongside appropriate assignments in garbage trucks, taxis, and the like. The shops provide hundreds of ways to customize your character’s mugshot and tiny in-game sprites. Cheat codes are scattered all through the city,though using them disables saves (<strong>BE SURE TO EXIT THE ENTIRE GAME BEFORE CONTINUING: </strong>simply reloading your last save will not disable the cheat). And outside of story mode, you can free-roam with a full arsenal at will, try individual story missions and challenges from a menu, and peruse plenty of gameplay statistics. Though I finished the story mode in about six hours, I spent a few more exploring the city and attempting challenges. The full package is thick with value if the core mechanics appeal to you.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-tank.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-tank-thumb.jpg" alt="Retro City Rampage Tank" title="Retro City Rampage Tank" class="image" height="270" width="480" /></a></div>
<p>In the end, <em>Retro City Rampage</em> is <a title="GTA series" href="/series/grand-theft-auto" target="_blank"><em>Grand Theft Auto</em></a> distilled down to its base pixels. Its skeleton of competent game mechanics serves as a suitable frame for a smart, nostalgic open world and the possibilities for fun peppered throughout. The flat parodies that lend the game most of its identity end up feeling like confetti: paper-thin and tacky but nonetheless infectious in their unrelenting verve and genuine respect. If you can stomach the copious references (or have a taste for them) then you might do well to consider a trip to this 8-bit theme park.</p>
<p><strong>Is it worth the money?</strong> I think so. $15 smells a bit pricey for a retro game, but even a quick run of <em>Rampage</em> will likely last more than five hours, and there's enough worthwhile content to keep you coming back for several more. <em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Full disclosure, review keys for </strong></span></em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Retro City Rampage</strong></span><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong> were provided to The First Hour</strong></span> by D3 Publisher, Vblank Entertainment, Inc., and designer Brian Provinciano. </em></p>
<p><strong>Is it worth the time?</strong> Yes. The story mode has a few dud missions but most are enjoyable enough. And the rest of your time will be spent scouring the world for optional secrets and making your own fun.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-stats.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/retro-city-rampage/retro-city-rampage-stats.jpg" alt="Retro City Rampage Stats" title="Retro City Rampage Stats" class="image" height="428" width="760" /></a></div><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/retro-city-rampage#commentsretro city rampagebrian provincianosandboxps3psnpsvitawiiwiiwarexblaxbox 3607parodyMon, 05 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000Nate732 at http://firsthour.netThe Walking Dead: A New Dayhttp://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-a-new-day
<!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--break-->
<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">The Walking Dead: A New Day</th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="The Walking Dead: A New Day Cover" title="The Walking Dead: A New Day Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Windows, OSX, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Heavy bRAIN</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Score</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">8&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="/sites/default/files/images/clocks/infobox-score-8.png" alt="Clock score of 8" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="centerinfobox" colspan="2"><a class="amazonlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007WWW2C8?tag=thfiho0a-20" target="_blank">Buy from Amazon</a></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Word of mouth is a powerful, but nearly impossible to control selling
tool. Growing up, I rented SNES games based on friends’
recommendations; during college, PC games spread from computer to
computer like viruses. But now that I’m an adult working full-time, the
break room doesn’t satisfy the gaming suggestion mill. So where do I
turn? <a href="https://twitter.com/firsthour">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Love it or hate it, your reaction to Twitter will
be based entirely on the people you choose to follow, and I choose to
follow a lot of people in the gaming industry. From developers to
journalists, they all seem to be raving about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_%282012_video_game%29"><strong>The Walking Dead</strong></a>, Telltale
Games’ newest episodic adventure for Windows, OSX, Xbox 360,
PlayStation 3, and iOS devices.</p>
<p>Fresh off my completion of Tales
of Monkey Island, also from Telltale, I was excited to try out something
a bit newer, and The Walking Dead fits the bill perfectly, especially
with today being Halloween! So here’s my review of <strong>Episode 1: A New Day</strong>,
I will continue to review the other episodes in the coming weeks, as
long as I survive!</p>
<p>Happy Halloween and happy gaming!</p>
<h3>Episode Reviews</h3>
<ol>
<li><strong>A New Day</strong></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-starved-for-help">Starved for Help</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-long-road-ahead">Long Road Ahead</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-around-every-corner">Around Every Corner</a></li>
<li><a href="/full-review/the-walking-dead-no-time-left">No Time Left</a></li>
</ol>
<p>Trying to imagine how Telltale would translate The Walking Dead into a point and click adventure game was a challenge. This has to be a point and clicker, right? That’s the only kind of game they make, isn’t it? Well, apparently I’ve been out of the loop since The Walking Dead is basically a full on <a href="/full-review/heavy-rain"><strong>Heavy Rain</strong></a> imitator with zombies.</p>
<p>Hey, I loved Heavy Rain, it had some serious issues but I was drawn into it like no other game. So color me surprised when The Walking Dead started ripping on its best aspects, complete with its dramatic, interactive cutscenes and short bursts of fast action. I came in expecting to manage an inventory and ponder through endless dialog choices, but left slightly exhilarated, if not a bit scared.</p>
<p>The game opens with Lee Everett in the back of a squad car being escorted to prison, but this being The Walking Dead, literal hell is about to be unleashed upon the world. As you look around the back of the police car and out the window, the driving officer chats you up, trying to figure out if you “really did it” or not, and all the while, the radio is crackling with word of riots and ambulances and other emergency vehicles are barreling down the road in the opposite direction. It’s an ominous, effective opening because we know exactly what’s going on but we’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-lee-everett-police-car-wife.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-lee-everett-police-car-wife.jpg" alt="the Walking Dead lee Everett Police car Wife" title="the Walking Dead lee Everett Police car Wife" class="image" height="437" width="800" /></a></div>
<p>It falls soon enough, and a few minutes later you’re pointing a shotgun in the zombified face of the police officer and pulling the trigger. Like Heavy Rain, there are a lot of “cutscenes” broken up with little quick time events, nothing terrible, mostly just pointing at nearby zombie heads for targeting or mashing a particular button to ward off a bite. The responses feel natural though, and tensions are heightened by the not-so-sober state Lee is always in (not that he’s drunk, but he slips on pools of blood and bonks his head in unexpectedly hilarious fashion more than once).</p>
<p>You’re usually given four responses at once in a conversation, but the answer is timed so you can’t sit and think forever, this is the zombie apocalypse, after all. I never felt rushed when picking a response, unlike <a href="/first-hour-review/alpha-protocol"><strong>Alpha Protocol</strong></a> where I barely had time to read half the options most of the time. And there is an inventory, but items are inserted automatically and used at the proper time, so there’s little frustration with that sometimes troubling trapping of the genre.</p>
<p>So due to the streamlined point and click experience, it is obvious Telltale is really focused on the characters and plot. Lee quickly meets up with a little girl named Clementine, whose parents were on vacation and are now undoubtedly dead. It’s an intriguing relationship, Lee has never been a father, and knows little about taking care of children, let alone the needs of a young girl during the end of the world. During their early adventures, they spend a bit of time on a farm and revisit Lee’s past, some of the build up established early is effectively resurrected later in the episode. It’s nice seeing storylines resolve themselves earlier than later when it comes to episodic games, you know the writers are serious about covering a lot of territory.</p>
<p>Telltale takes advantage of the inherent urgentness of the zompocalypse and writes some terrifying scenes that feature nothing but humans arguing back and forth over whether someone should live or die. The camera cuts are frequent and disorienting, and the dialog is written at a Gilmore Girls level pace to keep you off your toes. I had no idea what to expect from one scene about halfway through the episode, but it didn’t give me any time to fashion a guess either. I was ready to face the zombies again after that struggle.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-lee-everett-clementine-pharmacy.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/the-walking-dead/the-walking-dead-lee-everett-clementine-pharmacy.jpg" alt="the Walking Dead lee Everett Clementine Pharmacy" title="the Walking Dead lee Everett Clementine Pharmacy" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></a></div>
<p>But The Walking Dead’s biggest departure from the traditional point and click adventure storyline are the decisions it forces you to make. They start out small, should we leave during the day or at night? (dumb question, if you ask me) But by the end, the fates of two new friends are in your balance and only one can survive. Apparently, the choices you make will carry over to the next episode, so I’m excited to see if Telltale has the courage to really put its players through the ropes.</p>
<p>The art style of the game is quite handsome too, mimicking the lines and coloring of the graphic novel series the game is based on. One annoying problem I have are how the graphics chug pretty badly at times, especially early on for me. I have a computer that can play Borderlands 2 smoothly at 90 frames per second, but stutters during The Walking Dead without even maxing out my graphics card? I have no idea where the bottleneck is, but I have to point my finger at the code itself. Hopefully this is resolved in the later episodes but I have my doubts.</p>
<h3>Overall: 8</h3>
<p>Due to the pacing of the game, The Walking Dead isn’t exactly a scarefest. There’s maybe one moment that tries to jump-scare you, but I was expecting it and prepared. Personally, I’m not a fan of horror movies or games, but I heard too many good things to pass this one up, and so far, I’m glad I’m playing. The game is heavy on the gore and language, so leave this two hour adventure on the shelf until the kids go to bed. Can’t wait to start episode two.</p><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/the-walking-dead-a-new-day#commentsthe walking deadthe walking deadinteractive dramapoint and clickiososxps3windowsxbox 3608Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:00:00 +0000Greg Noe729 at http://firsthour.netMax Payne 3http://firsthour.net/full-review/max-payne-3
<!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--break-->
<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">Max Payne 3</th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/max-payne-3/max-payne-3-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/max-payne-3/max-payne-3-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="Max Payne 3 Cover" title="Max Payne 3 Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Bullet-dodging rent-a-cop</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Score</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">9.5&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="/sites/default/files/images/clocks/infobox-score-9.png" alt="Clock score of 9.5" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="centerinfobox" colspan="2"><a class="amazonlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0022TNO7S?tag=thfiho0a-20" target="_blank">Buy from Amazon</a></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>After nearly a decade of remission, Rockstar’s alcoholic, slow-mo,
bullet-dodging ex-cop anti-hero is finally back and more badass than
ever with their long-awaited third installment of his saga, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Payne_3"><strong>Max Payne 3</strong></a>.</p>
<p>From
the menu you can choose from story or multiplayer mode supporting up to
16 players online, or arcade mode where you can go back and try to get a
higher score on previously beaten levels from story mode as well as the
opportunity to hunt for and hidden valuables you may have missed your
first time through. As one would expect by now from a game coming out of
the Rockstar Studio, story mode is a fanatically written experience
riddled with compelling characters and a complex plot full of unexpected
twists and turns.</p>
<p>It turns out between games Max got a job working as a gun-for-hire, protection detail protecting the Branco Family in Brazil. Rodrigo is a wealthy real-estate mogul with his wife Fabiana; Victor, a local politician; and Marceloa, a drunk. The game begins at a Branco family party and it’s not long before all hell breaks loose and there are some "unexpected guests" that crash the party, making it your job as the one-man security to stop. Before you know it an entire conspiracy unfolds from these hitmen and you find yourself embodying the old Max you know and love, shooting up everywhere in South America from Brazilian night clubs to poor run-down favelas. From huge soccer stadiums to giant yachts sandwiched inside the Panama Canal, tearing Brazil apart to find those who are trying to kill the people you’re hired to protect becomes pretty messy. Sometimes there are even flashback sequences in Hoboken, and you find yourself back in the slums of New Jersey duking it out with the mob again. The game’s variety in location and enemy proves to be one of its many strengths.</p>
<p>Anyone who has played any of the current-gen Rockstar titles (<a href="/first-hour-review/red-dead-redemption"><strong>Red Dead Redemption</strong></a>, <a href="/first-hour-review/grand-theft-auto-4"><strong>Grand Theft Auto IV</strong></a>) should know what to expect as far as controls, it’s that same “generic Rockstar feel”: loose and juusssst right. Max Payne 3 is much more than just one of the best third person shooters out there, right from the beginning it seamlessly transitions telling the story flawlessly between cutscenes and gameplay, in return feeling more like a mixed-media epic complete with compelling interpersonal character development and South American politics, which brings me to the game’s writing.</p>
<p>Max Payne 3’s story is by far the most subversive I have ever experienced from a video game in my life. I have seen plenty of great writing in games, but not like this, just the kind of writing so good it makes me want to come back and keep playing. Max Payne’s plot sucked my mind into this world and had me feeling the pain of this alcoholic widower wasting away his life saving some rich people he doesn’t care about in a third-world country he has no business being in for God knows why, it had me up at night thinking about what real-life South American economic struggles are life. Between extremely engaging and all-too realistic re-enactments of an alchy gringo losing it in a poverty and violence-stricken nation, along with the constantly-running sarcastic commentary by Max for a change of pace, experiencing this game’s story getting 20-hour constant load-up of whatever the best of Hollywood has to offer. If <a href="/first-hour-review/halo"><strong>Halo</strong></a> is a great shooter like Die Hard is a great action film, then with it’s excellent story and writing, Max Payne 3 is a great shooter like Scarface is a great film. Its story, its characters, its scene after memorable scene is what sets this third-person shooter far apart from the thousands of others available.</p>
<p>My major gripe Max Payne 3 is its presentation. The cutscenes of the game are presented almost seamlessly with the gameplay, and whenever Max or any character says something that is considered important (which is almost everything), the words fly up dynamically as white text on the screen. I know this sounds like nitpicking, but I don’t mind subtitles, or if it’s only happening a bit, but it goes on literally every time someone talks, every time I’m trying to watch something happen in the story, and it just get’s really annoying.</p>
<p>My other two problems I found are that even while watching each cutscene and hunting for collectables, I still managed to beat this game in under 15 hours. On top of that, the replay value is relatively low, coming in the form of nothing but the ability to hunt for golden gun pieces that I may have missed in my first play through.</p>
<p>Even with these few faults, and especially with its new 30-40 dollar price tag, Max Payne 3 is a must-own for almost anyone with a 360 or PS3.</p>
<h3>Overall: 9.5/10</h3>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/max-payne-3/max-payne-3-shooting-violence-thug.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/max-payne-3/max-payne-3-shooting-violence-thug.jpg" alt="max Payne 3 Shooting Violence Thug" title="max Payne 3 Shooting Violence Thug" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></a></div><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/max-payne-3#commentsmax payne 3max paynethird person shooterps3windowsxbox 3609.5Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:00:00 +0000Tyler James Braatz728 at http://firsthour.netBorderlands 2 - Mike's Rebuttalhttp://firsthour.net/full-review/borderlands-2-mikes-rebuttal
<!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--break-->
<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">Borderlands 2</th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/borderlands-2/borderlands-2-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/borderlands-2/borderlands-2-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="Borderlands 2 Cover" title="Borderlands 2 Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Xbox 360, Windows, PlayStation 3</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Betterlands? Not so much</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Score</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">8... for now&nbsp; <img src="/sites/default/files/images/clocks/infobox-score-8.png" alt="Clock score of 8" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="centerinfobox" colspan="2"><a class="amazonlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050SYK44?tag=thfiho0a-20" target="_blank">Buy from Amazon</a></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>What began as a simple reply to <a href="/full-review/borderlands-2">my original <strong>Borderlands 2</strong> review</a> grew
into a full on rebuttal almost as long as the original piece! We
wouldn't normally rewrap comments into their own review, but since Mike
in Omaha is our resident <a href="/series/borderlands">Borderlands</a> expert and I was eagerly looking
forward to his own thoughts on the game, I asked for permission to make a
little copy and paste magic behind the scenes. What you see is his
original comment to my review with some bonus formatting to highlight
his specific points.</p>
<p>Before I hand it off to Mike, I'd like to
thank him for transforming my original <a href="/full-review/borderlands-greg-noe"><strong>Borderlands</strong></a> 1 experience from a
fun solo experience into an absolute blast of cooperative fun. He gave
me guns, helped me fight the final boss together multiple times, and
exponentially broadened my knowledge of the game. He's an expert on
Borderlands, its biggest fan, and as you'll see below, its biggest
critic. <a href="/full-review/borderlands">He awarded Borderlands 1 a 10/10</a> and provided first hour reviews
for <a href="/first-hour-review/borderlands">both</a> <a href="/first-hour-review/borderlands-2">games</a>.</p>
<p>Here's Mike in Omaha on Borderlands 2 and specifically <a href="/full-review/borderlands-2">my review of the game from Monday</a>. Original comment from October 10, 2012 at 2:07 PM.</p>
<p>I was going to write a full game review myself, but you've done a great job with your review and I agree with most of what you've written so I'll just add a couple of my observations/disagreements so
far.</p>
<p>First, let me agree with you about the grenades and shields. They've
really made these more interesting and more useful. Lots to see and do
with regards to ones shields and grenades, allowing deeper customization
and application of a variety of defensive and offensive playstyles.
However...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"The guns, all 87 bazillion of them, feature much more variety in Borderlands 2."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I've actually found the opposite. I liked the idea of each
manufacturer having a "Schtick" in theory but in practice I've found it actually pigeonholes
the weapons too much, restulting in less variety, not more. For instance, I can tell you
that I will ignore every hyperion gun immediately because they all have
that terrible accuracy for the first few shots. I also don't use
Tediore because I really dislike the grenade effect of the guns. I'm a
guy who loves a full clip, so I'm constantly reloading. Do that with a
tediore and you'll be out of ammo in about a minute. And the guns that
have burst fire while zoomed, those are also very restricting. So I
actually found that the guns were much more limiting this time, even as
they tried to offer more variety, they really ended up with less since
each brand is so similar to other guns of that brand. In Borderlands 1, there was a greater range within each manufacturer. They still had their own identity (Jacobs was all about power, S&amp;S Munitions specialized in high capacity magazines, etc), but each identity was broad enough that you never knew for sure if the gun would be good or bad, or would be better than something you were using now. The new weapon design means the guns of each brand are more recognizable yes, but also more predictable, meaning fewer interesting and meaningful combinations.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Borderlands 1 was a great game, Borderlands 2 is a greater game. Gearbox fixed many of the irks and pains of the first game"</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So far, for me, Borderlands 1 is a much better game. While I
do appreciate the improvements you skillfully enumerate in your review, especially the increase in enemy types and
development of the story, they've lost a lot of the magic of the first
game. Seeing Pandora with lots of water and even lush environments with
grass and streams and such has really changed my reality. Part of the magic of Pandora was the presentation as this vast Mad Max wasteland. An environment so
poison and lifeless that anything that actually does live there would be
incredibly dangerous and aggressive (or it would be dead). The effort to offer more visually
interesting environments (to address some peoples complaints about the
first game which I never shared) has meant that the Pandora of the first
game was really just a region and that the "badnessness" of the planet
is really just because of monsters, not also because of the incredibly
inhospitable environment. It's subtle but it's a big shift none the
less.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/borderlands-2/borderlands-2-siren-pandora-night-magic.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/borderlands-2/borderlands-2-siren-pandora-night-magic-thumb.jpg" alt="Borderlands 2 Siren Pandora Night Magic" title="Borderlands 2 Siren Pandora Night Magic" class="image" width="800" height="485" /></a></div>
<p>Also, the classes feel much less "wild and fun" this time around.
They are probably a bit better balanced (which pleases many critics) but there's no more going crazy
like in the first game, at least not perhaps till the very end game. In Borderlands 1, going berserk as Brick, or Phaseblasting as Lilith or dropping
Bloodwing could be a total game changer, even at very low level. The special powers of
Borderlands 2 are not nearly so gamechanging. At least not until we got
the Mechromancer. Each class has a skill that, rather than being amazing
on its own, contributes to a cool group dynamic. This, to me, makes
the game much less solo friendly (although, it probably makes the game
feel deeper in co-op play). The first game was lauded for its inspired
co-op design. But in my opinion the single player aspect never suffered
because the classes were much more autonomous. In this game, the classes
feel more needy. They almost feel imcomplete without another player to help make the most of their powers. Particularly with the introduction of slag (which was an effect that was part of corrosion in the first game, causing enemies to take more damage from bullets while being under its effect). Slag is
much more effective in groups. Without a group, it's actually a pain to
try to utilize for most of the game. You're constantly forced to switch
weapons and/or switch grenade mods. In combination with enemies having massive resistance to certain elements necessitating equipment changes already, that kind of further metagame management
isn't particularly fun. It's made worse by the fact that they've
significantly nerfed elemental weapons, while at the same time making
them more necessary. </p>
<p>In Borderlands 1, if you're using an elemental weapon, there are two
damage components. Bullet damage and elemental effect damage. In that
game, if an enemy was resistant to the elemental damage, you could still
count on them at least taking bullet damage. However, in Borderlands 2, they've
made a pretty serious change. In Borderlands 2, if a creature is resistant to
elemental damage, they also resist that guns bullet damage. So, for
example if you have a super powerful combat rifle that also does fire
damage, a fire skag will resist both, turning your super powerful combat
rifle into a useless toy. This bothers me for two reasons. It makes
good guns with elemental damage much less generally useful. And second,
it means more weapon switching and inventory juggling for solo gamers.
In Borderlands 2, I feel the need to carry around more versions of guns to do the
job. There's more to do and juggle. This detracts from the overall
experience in my opinion.</p>
<p>I'd also like to mention the badass rank system which I think is
pretty cool. I particularly like how it is profile wide so that your
increases will help any and all characters that you create. You don't
have to start over with each new character. I also love the inifinite ability to upgrade your stats using it.&nbsp; I do miss the proficiency and mini-quest
system it replaced though. I very much liked the idea that as you use
certain weapons you get better with THOSE weapons. If you want to be
good with a shotgun, just kill more stuff with it. In Borderlands 2, if you use an
SMG all the time, you STILL get better with shotguns and snipers. That
feels a little off.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/borderlands-2/borderlands-2-handsome-jack-striking-pose.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/borderlands-2/borderlands-2-handsome-jack-striking-pose-thumb.jpg" alt="Borderlands 2 Handsome Jack Striking Pose" title="Borderlands 2 Handsome Jack Striking Pose" class="image" width="800" height="500" /></a></div>
<p>Then there is the scaling. They seem to have exponentially increased
it per level. This does a couple of things. First, it can make
difficulty feel very swingy. Something that is just a level or two above you
can seem pretty hard. I've not had a lot of problems with this, but
reading lots of feedback on the gearbox forums, it seems people think
this game is a lot harder. I would argue that is at least in part due to
the increased scaling effect. If you don't do enough side quests to maintain your level, this game will get harder faster than the first one. Second, it means that the math will
skyrocket in the end game. Where guns early on do damage of 30-75 per
bullet, you'll see guns later doing damage in the thousands per bullet.
In the first game, where a great shield at level 50 might have been a
3000 point shield, in this game, a similar shield will offer 30,000
points of protection. But, yet, the enemies damage is also scaling so
the increased protection is really just an illusion. An illusion that
requires silly-large numbers to make it work. I say remove the
ridiculous scaling so that things are a manageable scale again.</p>
<p>Lastly, I will lament the loss of repeaters and revolvers as distinct
weapon types. First, I liked having a separate ammo pool and second,
because again, it means we have less variety in the weapons we find.
Gone are the glory days of giant hand cannons that could even be a good
backup for a sniper. And so far, gone also are the ridiculous machine
pistols that were like shotguns at close range, total bullet hoses with
horrible accuracy and insane fire rates.</p>
<p>Ok, so my comments seem pretty negative. Overall, I do like the game.
Not as much as the first, much of the magic of the first game has been "fixed", especially in solo play. But
it's still very good. My critiques are those of someone who spent altogether too much time playing the original. I miss the previous classes and how guns and
proficiencies worked. I miss that this game is more co-op driven and not
as solo friendly. But I love the new quest mechanics, the pervasive ranking system and the class design while playing co-op. I think the game feels more complete and the design is more mature. I love the humor, the characters and the much more fleshed out story (the ending was more satisfying than the first game). With about 100 hours of playtime using 4 of the 5 available classes, beating the game solo as the siren and in co-op as the commando, I'd give it a very solid 8, but with a sad face next
to it because I was more excited for this game to come out than probably
any game in the last 10 years and for me Borderlands the original was
easily a 10.</p><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/borderlands-2-mikes-rebuttal#commentsborderlands 2borderlandsfpsrpgps3windowsxbox 360Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:00:00 +0000Mike in Omaha725 at http://firsthour.netNBA 2K13http://firsthour.net/full-review/nba-2k13
<!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--break-->
<table class="infobox">
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="gamename" colspan="2">NBA 2K13</th>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td class="infoboximage" colspan="2"><a href="/screenshots/nba-2k13/nba-2k13-cover.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/nba-2k13/nba-2k13-cover-thumb.jpg" alt="NBA 2K13 Cover" title="NBA 2K13 Cover" style="vertical-align: middle;" class="infobox_image" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="leftinfobox">Platforms</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows, Wii, Wii U, PSP, iOS, Android</td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<th class="leftinfobox">Genre</th>
<td class="rightinfobox">Chic basketball champion</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<th class="centerinfobox" colspan="2"><a class="amazonlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007M6W38W?tag=thfiho0a-20" target="_blank">Buy from Amazon</a></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Visual Concepts’ NBA 2K series has been a heavy hitter in the
basketball simulator game since the Dreamcast days, and in 2010 when
Visual Concepts and 2K Sports became the first to grab the rights to
feature Michael Jordan himself in their games, the 2K brand soon became
the must-have in basketball sims. NBA 2K11 featured the ability gamers
had only dreamt of, to soar and jump-shot like Jordan. As if sales
weren’t evidence enough to display the 2K series’ dominance in the
field, competitor EA soon sealed the 2K series’ role as the one to beat
when they canceled their own NBA Live and NBA Elite. NBA 2K12 would soon
be released, featuring even more NBA Legends and a new mode. Yet again,
one year later <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_2K13"><strong>NBA 2K13</strong></a> is released with even more features, and
completely Jay-Z-efied. Here is my review of NBA 2K13.</p>
<p>NBA 2K13 was released earlier this month and the Xbox 360 version provided to us by 2K Sports for review.</p>
<p>There have been a few major changes made to Visual Concepts and 2K Sports’ game this last year apart from just new legends and game modes. Among them is the introduction of a virtual currency, the business of the game being Executive Produced by Jay-Z, and the new “stick control system.”</p>
<p>From the subtitle on the box labeled “Executive Produced By Jay-Z” to the image of Jay-Z taking up more of the back cover than anything basketball to their boasting all over the box that he presided over the soundtrack, in-game presentation elements, and the overall style of the game. You should know before playing a minute of this game that hip-hop artist Jay-Z is going to be in some way prevalent in this game. While a large majority of the soundtrack does feature songs off of various Jay-Z albums and the rest of the songs featured are of a similar sound (Think Kanye West, NAS), it’s actually a nice variety of casual R&amp;B that flows nice with the game-to-game vibe and doesn’t have you thinking “Jay-Z promotional tool.”</p>
<p>One of the new changes to this year’s installment in the 2K basketball series is the way in which you’ll be upgrading and obtaining pretty much everything: earning new threads for your created play in “MyPlayer” mode, upgrading your created NBA star’s stats in “MyCareer” mode, getting better players for your team in “MyTEAM” or “NBA BLACKTOP” modes, as well as accessing the ability to many more features in the game, you’re going to need to obtain and spend a new virtual currency in the game called “VC.” You can compile this VC either through earning your amount agreed upon over the year through your NBA contract while playing for your team in MyCareer mode, or through various bonuses during the year for performing well. You can also earn small amounts of VC through playing exhibition matches both online and off in all game modes, or simply purchase VC online for real money- 2,000 for 99 cents, 5,000 for $1.99, and 10,000 for $2.99 if you’re in a hurry.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/nba-2k13/nba-2k13-my-player-mode.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/nba-2k13/nba-2k13-my-player-mode-thumb.jpg" alt="nba 2k13 my Player Mode" title="nba 2k13 my Player Mode" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></a></div>
<p>In MyTEAM Game mode you can buy better coaches, playbooks, jerseys, stadiums, and players for your team, such as LeBron James for 20,000 VC points. In MyCareer mode you can spend your VC on more worthwhile things like 2,000 VC to max-out your jump-shot, passing, or ball handling attributes, or maybe 5,000 to make your dunks look like retro Michael Jordan’s. VC can also be used on more fashionable endeavors in MyPlayer mode, where you can acquire either fancy new suits and diamonds to don in the press meetings after your games, or some new team-colored hats, chains, sweatpants, and Jordan's to wear when you’re shooting around with your boys on the blacktop or hanging around the locker room.</p>
<p>The biggest actual gameplay change this year comes in the form of “The Control Stick.” All dribbling, shooting, passing, and post moves have been mapped to the right control stick, giving you complete control, similar to EA NBA Live’s “Freestyle” control mode. This offers all-new ankle-breaking animations, as well as the ability to smoothly string together different types of moves.</p>
<p>Something that goes hand-in-hand with the music selection (provided by Jay-Z) is the home screen, the first screen you’re brought to in the game. The menu system throughout the game is one of the most fluidly dynamic designed systems I’ve seen in awhile. I’m not sure if it’s the way the outlined selections subliminally vibe to the audio being played, or just the cool way my created all-star dances around the home screen in the custom-made outfit I designed him, but the intuitive trifold design of the home page that breaks down into a seamless menu offering you a list of game modes to select between is only one of 2K’s ingenious yet incredibly simplistic menu techniques that integrates perfectly with the soundtrack.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/nba-2k13/nba-2k13-allen-iverson-ankle-breaking-maneuver.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/nba-2k13/nba-2k13-allen-iverson-ankle-breaking-maneuver.jpg" alt="nba 2k13 Allen Iverson Ankle Breaking Maneuver" title="nba 2k13 Allen Iverson Ankle Breaking Maneuver" class="image" height="600" width="800" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of <strong><a href="http://www.ign.com/blogs/bmagicdabeast">bmagicdabeast</a></strong></div>
<p>The MyCareer game mode is by far where I spent most of my time. For not being someone who was ever particularly fond of the NBA, or playing basketball (either virtually or in real life), I found myself very surprised at how caught up in this game I found myself. At times I could spend up to ten hours a day ensnared in the virtual reality of living my life as an NBA Star through this game- running the daily schedule of playing regular season games, working hard to get better and make it to the playoffs, meet with the GM, answer the media’s post-game questions after the games, trying to get media endorsements - I became obsessed. That’s when I realized how foolish I was for thinking this was just a mere basketball game.</p>
<p>NBA2K13’s new MyCareer mode gives you the opportunity to make a basketball player from the ground up - his look, his position, name and hometown, and his very base set of attributes, from which you can improve either through hard work or through VC you’ve purchased. You then control that player from the very beginning of his career, you start in the rookie game with other rookies, and your performance is then watched by scouts and coaches for all of the NBA teams. After that game you will be interviewed by a few interested NBA team coaches who want to draft you in the upcoming NBA draft. Depending on how you answer the questions, one of them will draft you in the next sequence. Afterwards, you are offered a contract, usually for four years, and then thats when you begin practicing and playing for that team. Eventually you will be able to meet with the GM and ask for a trade if you want. You can skip non-key scheduled games if you want and only play key games.</p>
<p>The amount of finesse and detail Visual Concepts has poured into every aspect of NBA 2K13 is almost an obsessive amount. The level of polish that can be seen from the gameplay to the aesthetics in the menus is something any game should strive for. It’s something I’ve never seen pulled off quite as wholly as in this title. There is no doubt that after experiencing all of it’s game modes it has to offer, there’s still much more to come back for, making NBA 2K13 one of the most complete and satisfying sports titles out there.</p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="/screenshots/nba-2k13/nba-2k13-usa-olympic-dream-team.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/nba-2k13/nba-2k13-usa-olympic-dream-team-thumb.jpg" alt="nba 2k13 usa Olympic Dream Team" title="nba 2k13 usa Olympic Dream Team" class="image" height="450" width="800" /></a></div><!-- google_ad_section_end -->http://firsthour.net/full-review/nba-2k13#commentsnba 2k13nba 2ksportsandroidiosps3pspwiiwii uwindowsxbox 360Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:00:00 +0000Tyler James Braatz724 at http://firsthour.net